Labour should look to its progressive sister parties in the United States and Australia and learn lessons on what an effective transition to power looks like, says The Future Governance Forum (FGF), a new progressive think tank focused on fixing Britain’s broken system of government. Published today, Into Power 01: Lessons from Australia and the United States calls on the Labour leadership to use the crucial pre-election period to set the tone, direction and style of the government they want to lead, emphasising the importance of transition planning given the overnight nature of handovers in the UK. However, preparations risk being subsumed by the election campaign if not properly resourced and separate from the campaign team, the think tank warns.
Speaking to senior advisors from the Biden-Harris and Albanese transition teams to help craft its recommendations, FGF says preparing a detailed plan not just for the first 100 days, but the first 96 hours – an idea borrowed from Albanese’s 2022 transition – is imperative to instil confidence at a time the new government is at its newest and least experienced.
With its five missions for government, Labour is not only proposing new policies but a fundamentally new way of governing. The party will have a narrow window of opportunity to establish its ‘mission-driven’ approach, underlining the need for changes to be at the heart of transition plans so they can be embedded in departmental and civil service thinking from day one. Labour should also not overlook the potential of temporary appointments. Learning from the US approach to staffing transitions by establishing ‘beachhead’ teams in key roles would ensure a new government can start delivering from day one. A lack of formal recruitment processes in UK political parties is also identified. Having proper systems in place and recruiting openly as with recent Australian and American transitions would diversify and democratise the way political appointments are made.
Drawing lessons from the US Democrats and Australian Labor, the report provides a series of recommendations Labour could benefit from ahead of the next general election:
- The party leadership must set the direction and mandate for the transition team and delegate to trusted people to deliver them.
- The transition team should draw up a plan for the first 96 hours as well as the first 100 days, so the new government can deliver when it has most political capital but is least experienced.
- Changes to the way in which the country is governed – not just the policies which the government implements – must be embedded in transition planning if they are to succeed.
- Establish ‘beachhead’ teams of temporary appointments in key roles to help a new government start delivering immediately.
- While the campaign takes precedence, the transition team must be adequately resourced and a distinct entity in its own right, while retaining strong links to the campaign and party leadership.
- Recruitment to roles in the new administration must be formalised and made more transparent.
Tom Collinge, Head of Comms and Policy at Progressive Britain and author of Into Power 01, said: “Into Power 01 is published at a time with access talks between the Opposition and civil service beginning and preparations for government in the Labour Party well underway. What we have learned from looking at transitions around the world is that the transition reflects the objectives, and the character of the government a party aspires to be. That means that, whether they are conscious of it or not, Labour are planning a Starmerite transition. How it cashes out will tell us a lot about what kind of government Labour would be, and how they deliver on their ambitious commitment to be ‘mission-driven’.”
Adam Terry, Deputy Director of The Future Governance Forum, said: “In politics, talk of campaigning and winning power understandably tends to dominate. But the nature of our electoral system, with its whiplash-inducing transition from election victory party to 10 Downing Street, makes preparing for what to do with that power absolutely pivotal. Recent conservative-to-progressive transitions in the US and Australia tell us transition planning must be taken seriously from the leadership on down so that an incoming government can start delivering from day one, through the crucial first 96 hours and beyond.”
